Analysis of Professors' Lived Experiences of the Structural Challenges of Internship Courses at Farhangian University during the Corona Era (Virtual)

The virtualization of internship courses can bring many challenges, which can be turned into gaining experience from these courses despite it. Therefore, the current research was carried out with the aim of describing, analyzing, and calculating the damages caused by the structure of the internship period from the point of view of its guiding professors.
 
According to the objective, a qualitative research method with a descriptive phenomenological approach was used. The field of research included guidance professors of Farhangian University in Kurdistan province in the academic year of 2019-2020, which reached saturation with the method of targeted sampling with the number of 10 people. The research tool was an in-depth semi-structured interview made by the researcher and the data analysis was based on the seven-step Claysey model.
 
Based on the results of the professors' lived experiences from the virtual internship, two themes, Six categories, and 32 concepts were obtained. Some of the benefits of virtual internships include easier access to resources and reduced costs and the most important challenges extracted were categorized into three categories: structural, executive, and content challenges.
Finally, based on the findings, it can be concluded that the lack of necessary infrastructure for virtual internships has made it ineffective compared to face-to-face internships. Therefore, it is suggested to take advantage of the integration and combination of virtual and in-person internships for more productivity and effectiveness during the internship period. Finally, according to the findings, it is suggested that the teacher training program in the internship course during the university period should be reviewed. According to the findings of the second question, it can be said that holding virtual internships faces major challenges; Therefore, Farhangian University should not substitute virtual internships for face-to-face internships; rather, it should make virtual internships a complement to face-to-face internships in order to increase internship efficiency.